A variety of medical devices may be used for chronic, e.g., long-term, delivery of therapy to patients suffering from a variety of conditions, such as chronic pain, tremor, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, urinary or fecal incontinence, sexual dysfunction, obesity, or gastroparesis. One example of medical devices is medical electrical stimulation devices, which may deliver electrical stimulation therapy to a patient via implanted electrodes. Electrical stimulation therapy may include stimulation of nerve, muscle, or brain tissue, or other tissue within a patient.
An electrical stimulation device may be fully implanted within the patient. For example, an electrical stimulation device may include an implantable electrical stimulation generator and one or more implantable leads carrying electrodes. As examples, electrical stimulation generators are used for chronic delivery of electrical stimulation therapies such as cardiac pacing, neurostimulation, muscle stimulation, or the like. Alternatively, the electrical stimulation device may comprise a leadless stimulator. In some examples, implantable electrodes may be coupled to an external electrical stimulation generator via one or more percutaneous leads or fully implanted leads.
Other examples of medical devices are pumps or other fluid delivery devices, which may be used for chronic delivery of therapeutic agents, such as drugs. Typically, such devices provide therapy continuously or periodically according to parameters contained within a program. A program may comprise respective values for each of a plurality of parameters, specified by a clinician.
In some examples, the patient may be allowed to activate and/or modify the therapy delivered by the medical device. For example, a patient can be provided with a patient programming device. The patient programming device communicates with a medical device to allow the patient to activate therapy and/or adjust therapy parameters. For example, an implantable medical device (IMD), such as an implantable neurostimulator or a fluid delivery device, may be accompanied by an external patient programmer that permits the patient to activate and deactivate neurostimulation or fluid delivery therapy and/or adjust the intensity of the delivered neurostimulation or the delivered amount of the therapeutic agent. The patient programmer may communicate with the IMD via wireless telemetry to control the IMD and/or retrieve information from the IMD.